[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 38 (Thursday, March 30, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E487]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING THE MEMORY OF ERMA BYRD

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. RUSH D. HOLT

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 30, 2006

  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize and honor the memory of 
Erma Byrd, the wife of the senior Senator from West Virginia. We mourn 
the death of this great lady.
  Here in this chamber it is important that we acknowledge the 
importance of the spouses of those who serve in the U.S. Congress. 
There is no more distinguished member of the legislative branch than 
the Senator from West Virginia, and certainly none who has served so 
effectively for so long. Surely, some of the credit for this 
distinguished service should go to Erma Byrd.
  My family and I have known the Byrds for much longer than half a 
century. Senator Byrd and his wife have been devoted to each other for 
almost 69 years. She has been his closest companion and, I believe, his 
closest advisor. When they first married, he turned over to her his 
wallet and the family finances. He relied on her for everything 
domestic. For decades, in the evenings after his superb legislative and 
political work on Capitol Hill, when other members of Congress set off 
for receptions and social functions, Senator Byrd returned home to sit 
with Erma and read, often to each other.
  Erma Byrd has been a dear friend of my mother. The daughter of a coal 
miner, Erma Byrd was a woman who showed great consideration for other 
people. She was a woman with a backbone and what we would call West 
Virginia gumption. The whole country of the United States knows Senator 
Byrd as a great legislator and great orator who can be counted on as 
the most adamant defender of our Constitution and a champion of the 
honor and traditions of the Congress, especially the U.S. Senate. What 
many Americans may not know is the man who has given devotion to and, 
until her death last week, received devotion from his honorable and 
capable wife. I join others here in expressing my sympathies to this 
great colleague.

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